


Gatekeeper

by Espereth



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Community: asscreedkinkmeme, Gen, Hurt Novices, Protective Ezio, Protectiveness, Worried Ezio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-04
Updated: 2013-07-04
Packaged: 2017-12-17 16:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/869606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Espereth/pseuds/Espereth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things aren't going well for the Brotherhood in Roma. A protective Ezio frets about his young recruit who is missing in action.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gatekeeper

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted on the Asscreed Kinkmeme: http://asscreedkinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/1611.html?thread=8438603

"It should have been easy," Ezio fumed, pacing in his study at Tiber Island. 

The mission was a simple task, for a _Milite_ of Emiliana Santi's skill. There was no risk. Meet the gatekeeper, a Brotherhood agent, at the manor house in little Qualche Luogo. Get in and plant a note incriminating the local Templar lord for fraud. Get out as quickly as possible, paying the gatekeeper if it looked as though he needed incentive to keep quiet. No fighting. No killing. If Emiliana had done as he commanded, she would be seen by no-one but the gatekeeper.

Cristiano Corsellini, Ezio's youngest novice, watched him pace with a wary expression that irritated Ezio. "What is that look for?" Ezio demanded, rounding on the youth. "And what are you doing here - have you nothing useful to do?"

Cristiano bowed. "You sent for me, _Maestro_ ," he said respectfully.

Had he? Ezio glared at him. Surely he was not yet old enough to be so forgetful. But he had been so worried about Emiliana. No word. Nothing. It had been a week since she was due back. Delays of several days were not uncommon on a mission, and usually, he would not be concerned. Things went wrong; his apprentices dealt with the situation and came home. But Emiliana had never been sent away on her own before, and now Ezio was cursing himself for doing it. He hadn't had the resources to send two people, but was the mission worth a young woman's life? He should not have sent her at all.

" _Maestro_?"

Ezio gave Cristiano a dangerous look. 

" _Mi dispiace, Maestro_ ," Cristiano said carefully. "Piero and Giordano returned from the Antico just before you summoned me. If you wish it, I will send them to search for Emiliana."

"Who else is here?" Ezio stopped pacing and turned to him.

"Only me, _Maestro_." Cristiano looked at the floor in resignation.

" _Merda_." Piero and Giordano had been patrolling alone for days. They would need rest before they went anywhere. Both were young and strong, but exhausting them further would help no-one. Ezio realised he could not leave to find Emiliana himself, either - not with the situation in Roma so fragile. Cesare's men had reclaimed not one, but two of their fortified towers after the Brotherhood's ranks proved too thin to hold them. If he left the city, the Borgia would encroach, further weakening his position. And Ezio had no hope of recruiting more citizens until the Brotherhood proved itself worth joining.

Moments like this reminded him of how deeply the loss of Annetta and Severino, his two fully-trained Assassini, in Moscow earlier in the year had affected the Roma Brotherhood. Two young lives lost. Ezio grieved for them both, but it was almost worse seeing the despair on the faces of his apprentices. None of his men in Roma were even close to Annetta or Severino's standard, and the loss of such a wealth of experience had demoralised everyone. The younger Brothers had been forced to take on more risks, more responsibilities, in addition to their usual tasks. Of course, they had risen to his every order, fighting hard to keep their Brotherhood afloat. But there was only so much they could do, and they knew it.

"Tell Piero and Giordano to get to bed, immediately," Ezio told Cristiano. "They will leave at dawn to find Emiliana." Not nearly enough rest, but it would have to do. If only he had more men! At this point he felt ready to take on anyone who could lift a blade.

"And -"

Ezio silenced him with a look. "You will stay here, Cristiano." 

" _Maestro_ , I want to help," he said. 

"You will help me by staying here in Roma. Find La Volpe. See if he can spare one of his spies to send out at dawn. Someone who can fight. And, tell him I said he must put his second-in-command in charge of the Thieves and get over here until this whole mess is dealt with!"

Cristiano swallowed. "I- Yes, _Maestro_. I'll tell him... something like that."

"You will tell him exactly that, and stand up straight when you do it, _fratellino_." Ezio clapped him on the shoulder and sent him off. Cristiano was brave enough when it came to fighting, but he was awkward - it was high time he learned that just because a man like Volpe looked daggers at a novice, didn't mean the world would end.

The night wore on, finding Ezio dozing at his desk in the wee hours. Cristiano returned, without La Volpe, but with the promise of spies to be dispatched at dawn. Together, Assassin and apprentice pored over maps and planned their search for the morning.

"Perhaps she isn't dead," Cristiano said once, softly. "She could have been captured."

"Then you had best hope she is dead," said Ezio sharply. "Death is better than capture."

Cristiano looked so pale with shock that Ezio regretted his words, but they were true.

They both sat bolt upright at a pounding on the door. 

"Ready your blade," Ezio snapped at Cristiano, but the young man had already done so.

It was hard to tell who was holding up who when Emiliana, soaked to the bone and pale beneath the bruises on her face, stumbled through the door with her arm around a young man's waist. The youth's arm was slung across her shoulder and they were both limping and bloodied. Ezio had seen that dazed expression on the faces of battle-wearied fighters, and knew it wasn't good. It seemed as though Emiliana had got herself to Tiber Island through instinct alone - she was staring about her like she didn't know where she was, and her free arm was pressed tight across her belly.

The boy with her looked just as bad. His thigh was tightly bandaged with a strip of cloth that looked as though it had been cut from Emiliana's cloak, and it was clear that he had lost blood. 

Once across the threshold Emiliana stood dazedly before him, but long months of Ezio's harsh discipline kept her on her feet. Forgetting himself, Ezio pulled her into his arms in a rush of love, pride and relief. Cristiano moved to take the boy's weight, but Emiliana clung to him tightly, refusing to let him go.

"It's all right, Emiliana. You're safe," Ezio told her, pressing his cheek against her bedraggled curls as she slumped in his arms, still holding the young man at her side. It was still hard to believe she was here - not lost to a Templar blade, although it looked as though she'd been on the wrong end of one.

"Who is this, _sorellina_?" Ezio said gently, looking at the boy beside her.

"He's the gatekeeper," she said. "His name is Rocco." She stood up, pulling away from him. "I couldn't leave him, _Maestro_. But I swore that we would protect him. If you have to kill him for knowing where we are - "

"Shh, Emiliana," Ezio said. "No one wants to kill Rocco." Satisfied, Emiliana let Ezio lift the young man in his arms.

Summoned by Cristiano, the doctor Ricoveri appeared in his nightshirt, trousers and bare feet. With his sleep-tousled hair sticking up he looked almost as young as Cristiano, but he was very skilled. Ezio trusted him completely, and had relied on him many a time to put wounded men and women back together. 

Ricoveri didn't care about the hows or whys of the scene before him; all he saw was two wounded people, and he took charge, glancing from Rocco to Emiliana, with her arm clutched to her belly, frowning. "Let me see," he said to Emiliana, and gently but firmly pried her arm away, ready with clean cloths and prepared for the worst. But instead of a bloody wound he found a hard object pressed close to her body - a stone tablet the size of a book, carved with symbols and inlaid with gold. 

"You can let go of this now," Ricoveri told her. "Messer Ezio will keep it safe for you, _si_?" 

"May I, Emiliana?" Ezio said gently, and she yielded to his hands as he took the tablet from her. The tablet hummed as he ran a gloved hand over its markings, and he frowned. He knew something of the dangers of strange objects.

"I don't know what it is, _Maestro_ ," Emiliana said, relaxing now that the tablet was safely delivered to Ezio's hands. "The Templars were using it to hurt Rocco. I am sorry, _Maestro_ , but I didn't know what else to do with it - so I brought it to you."

"You did well, Emiliana. Whatever this is, it would have been disastrous for it to remain in Templar hands."

"Whatever it is, it can wait," the doctor said. "Get these two into the infirmary at once."

***

Once it was established that no-one was was in danger of bleeding to death, Ricoveri examined the two young adventurers. Considering that at this hour, propriety was already out of the window, Ezio stayed in the room while the doctor helped Emiliana off with her clothes and examined her.

"Looks worse than it is," Ricoveri said, brushing one of Emiliana's blood-clotted curls away from her face. "She took a beating, but most of this blood isn't hers, and bruises fade. Mostly, she is exhausted. She needs is plenty of food and rest." He looked at Ezio. " _Plenty_ of rest, _capito_? She is not to leave this room without my permission, or -"

"I know, I know. You'll go straight home to your mother in Sardegna," Ezio sighed. Emiliana giggled but subsided into an amused expression at a sharp look from Ezio.

"Correct. Now, leave me tend the boy." He went back to Rocco. 

Ezio looked fondly at Emiliana, able to give her a smile now that he was assured of her survival. 

" _Maestro_ ," she said, "I promised Rocco..."

"What did you promise, Emiliana?"

"That he would find shelter here. Rocco cannot go home. If his village remains in Templar hands -"

"Which it will not," Ezio said with a half-smile.

"His master's men will seek him out, _Maestro_. He is in danger. When I arrived at the gatehouse, he was nowhere to be found. But I heard screaming, and I followed it..." She shuddered. "Rocco withstood torture for us, Maestro."

"That much is obvious." Ricoveri was bent over Rocco's still form, his face dark with anger. "Templar dogs," he muttered. 

"How is he?" Ezio asked him.

"He will live," said the doctor. "He's thin, but it most likely saved his life. I doubt Emiliana would have been able to get him home if he was any bigger. As it is, it's a wonder that she managed to take his weight for such a distance."

Ezio stroked one of Emiliana's damp curls, and smiled. She was like Claudia in one sense - when she had made up her mind to do something, there was no preventing her.

"What do you think that box is, Maestro?" asked Emiliana.

"I have no idea," he said. "But when you've rested, I'll call in your Brothers. We'll work out what to do." Ezio promised.

Ezio sank into an armchair. There would be no dawn search this morning - thank God for that. Ricoveri tended to Rocco; Emiliana fought to stay awake, but soon was sound asleep. The fire snapped softly, and Ezio drew his hood up to doze, a smile on his face. Emiliana was back, and by the look of things, they'd secured their next _recluta_ \- Rocco the gatekeeper. Anyone who would withstand torture in fighting the Templars needed to be recruited then and there. For the first time in more than a year, Ezio felt as though things were going right.


End file.
